This invention relates to an improved synthetic tennis string material, to a method for making the string material, and to a tennis racquet incorporating the material.
In the game of tennis the characteristics of the material used for the racquet strings can be an extremely important factor in achieving optimum player performance. The strings of the racquet must have adequate strength so that they can be installed with a high degree of tension and thereby provide firmness, yet resiliency. Heretofore, among those familiar with tennis and the various types of racquets and materials, natural "gut" string, usually derived from lambs and consisting of a large number of twisted together fibers, was universally recognized as being superior to any synthetic string such as monofilament nylon. The reason for the aforesaid preference was mainly because of the strength and unique resiliency characteristics of nautral gut material. Also, twisted gut string in addition to its strength has a natural surface roughness, as opposed to a characteristic smoothness for artificial or synthetic monofilament string. This natural surface characteristic of gut string is important to a tennis player who wishes to put spin or "English" on the ball as he hits it.
Because of its natural origin and the difficulties in curing it for use, "gut" material has become relatively expensive. Although attempts have been made to utilize synthetic monofilament materials and even to combine a plurality of strands of monofilament to provide tennis strings, no artificial string material, prior to my invention, closely approximated the desired strength, resiliency, and roughness characteristics of natural "gut" material. Also, such synthetic strings have to a certain extent been subject to deterioration from heat and to relatively rapid wear as compared to gut strings and to strings prepared according to my invention.